


This is the moment you stop being the rabbit

by Tisaniere



Category: All For the Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Angst, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-27
Updated: 2016-04-27
Packaged: 2018-06-04 22:19:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,562
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6677575
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tisaniere/pseuds/Tisaniere
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lots of ficklest and prompt fics from my tumblr. A mix of angst, fluff and domestic Andreil covered in cats.</p>
            </blockquote>





	This is the moment you stop being the rabbit

The Foxes’s bus was at the tail end of a traffic backlog caused by a massive pile up. Cars were going nowhere whilst a flatbed truck’s load of steel poles lay across the fronts of steaming cars that were crunched at the back from the ensuing crashes. Wymack was on the phone to the match officials trying to work out what was the absolute latest they would be able to turn up to the match. Thank god for building in some contingency time, was all he could say.

It was hot. Too hot to be stuck in a traffic snarl up on a team bus with their bags and stretched out bodies stuffing up all the air. Everyone was starting to get overheated and tense. Dan ground her teeth, Allison was about to run out of phone battery and no-one wanted that to happen, Nicky tried his best to keep the mood light which made everyone a little murderous, Kevin was about to climb out of the window and go move the traffic obstruction with his bare hands and Matt tried to get a traffic update on a radio app on his phone. Aaron told him if he didn’t stop playing white noise he was going to kill him. Abby tried to turn some music on to keep everyone happy, which only made things worse.

“Someone on this bus is going to die today,” Andrew said into Neil’s hair. “Don’t.”

Neil lifted a hand and tugged gently on the longer parts of Andrew’s hair, where it was starting to curl a little at the ends.

“We’re not going to be moving for some time,” Nicky said, “I just looked it up on Twitter. They’ve closed the whole road, they have to get people to the hospital and then they have to clear the metal poles, but apparently they need some heavy lifting machine to get them off the road.”

“Screw me sideways,” Wymack said from up front. Abby turned the music up slightly louder.

Andrew’s nose rubbed against Neil’s scalp, lips pressed against his hair, “We’re going to be late.”

Andrew and Neil were laid on the back seats, feet up on the bench, Neil in-between Andrew’s legs. They had been practising Russian but it was too hot to concentrate.

“Wymack will get us there.”

“And if he doesn’t?”

“Kevin will make us walk.”

Andrew grunted into Neil’s hair like he was amused, but his fingers curled tightly into Neil’s sides. No doubt imagining strangling the suggestion of walking out of Kevin.

“What are we going to do coach?” Nicky called up to the front.

“I don’t know, Hemmick. Stick our feet through the bottom of the bus and walk it like they do in The Flinstones?”

“Aw Coach, can we try that?”

“Shut the hell up. All of you. I have a migraine.

Kevin finally rocketed off his seat and went to discuss with Wymack in excruciating detail what Exy regulations were about late arrivals. Nicky leant over the second to last row of seats and folded his arms under his chin.

“Hey guys.”

“Go away,” Andrew said. “You two look cute like that. If I could paint, I would paint you. But as I can’t…” Nicky pulled out his phone and took a snap.

Andrew tensed to jump up but Neil threw his shoulder back and kept him pinned down. “Nicky,” he said, warningly. Nicky got the idea and shuffled away, clutching his phone like Gollum with the Ring.

There was a moment of silence and then Allison piped up, “Oh nice, Nicky, on Twitter and everything. Hashtag cute as fuck? Was nice knowing you.”

Andrew made another attempt to get up and Neil almost let him go, but then Wymack’s voice thundered up the bus, “No more Twitter fiascos! I should ban you all from that damn social network.”

“I’m pretty sure access to Twitter is a basic human right.” Dan’s voice was like cut glass, “Shut up, Nicky, no it’s not.”

“Did you lot learn nothing from that seminar the Dean made you go to, about social media and reputation management? And that whole section about not winding all the other teams up. I’m looking at you, Neil.”

“Coach, Neil didn’t even do anything.”

“Not right now, no, but you’re all going to do something at some point aren’t you? I’m too hot for this. I’m going to get out and stretch my legs.”

“Don’t, please,” Abby said, “That’s not what you’re supposed to do in this situation, stay in the bus.”

“No, screw it, I need the air.”

The bus rocked a little as Wymack all but kicked open the door and levered himself onto he road. The team fell into a thick, bored silence. There was more tapping on phones and idle gossip - and threats - and then half an hour later Wymack returned.

“Someone was on their way back from picking up a barbecue set and a load of meat. They’re having a barbecue, in a traffic jam.”

“Don’t mention food Coach, we are starving.”

“There’s snacks in the kit bags. Get your fill.”

Two hours dragged on. The windows and doors were thrown open but no air seemed to circulate. Matt and Aaron nearly came to blows. Nicky got into a Twitter argument with a troll who tweeted hateful things under his picture of Andrew and Neil. Allison took off her nail varnish and then redid it. Dan and Renee got into an unending philosophical argument about the sanctity (or lack) of marriage.

No-one seemed to notice that Andrew and Neil were quiet. No mumblings in Russian, no bouts of ‘I hate yous’ or random percentages bitten at one another in a warped sort of affection that no-one understood, or wanted to understand. In that time friendships were almost broken and then became stronger, the team sweated more than they did on the court, Kevin softly banged his head against the window a few times when no-one was watching, Renee and Dan made some sort of pact that no-one dared ask about and everyone got to hear Matt and Nicky’s singing voices whether they wanted to or not. Aaron texted Katelyn.

When Abby could finally get the bus in gear and get it moving down the road, Wymack declared them officially ok for the match, as long as they got on their way quickly. But he still bent to Abby’s request to let them move into a rest stop the minute they got through the traffic.

Wymack, red in the face, walked up and down the seats.

“If anyone needs the bathroom this is your last chance, because otherwise you’re peeing out the window. Come on, move it, quick step.”

It was Nicky who noticed them first.

“Oh wow. Oh wow, this is going on Instagram.”

“Nicky what did I just tell you about social media you absolute-”

“Andrew is going to kill you.”

“It’ll be worth it.”

“They are so cute.”

“Oh god not you too, Allison.”

“Look at them. They are adorable.”

“Shush. You are going to get us all killed. Nicky take as many photos as you can, I want full sized A3 posters for the changing room.”

“Nicky, please don’t share this on social media. They have the right to a private love life.”

“Renee I love you but you are so boring sometimes.”

And then for a long moment the whole team (except Aaron, unsurprisingly) stood in silence from their various perches to drink in the spectacle before them. Neil was sprawled in Andrew’s lap, legs splayed out on the bench along from them. One of Andrew’s legs was hooked over Neil’s and his arms were wrapped around Neil’s waist.

The lower half of his face was buried in Neil’s hair and his eyelashes rested heavily against his pale skin. They were completely still bare the soft rising and falling of their chests. Each soft breath out ruffled Neil’s hair gently. Neil’s head rested gently to the side, with the sun showing off all those angles on his face that made a lot of people do a double take. The sun was low and soft over the tableau, turning their skin rich and warm and chasing away the shadows.

Andrew twitched.

“Nobody. Move. A muscle,” Matt stage whispered.

He put a hand out and braced it against Nicky’s chest. Nicky slowly put away his phone.

“Slowly,” Allison added. And slowly the team started to move. Though Wymack would deny it later he also moved delicately too, gently backing away, easing himself down the bus. They only got a few inches back by the time Aaron had stomped down the bus to the door and slammed the door closed on his way out. Andrew’s eyes snapped open and his head shot up.

Abby, watching from the car park with Aaron, later commented that she had never seen the Foxes move so fast in her life. Wymack took a deep breath that no-one saw and banged his fist on the back window.

“Up and out Romeo and Romeo.”

Andrew waited for everything to go quiet and then brushed his lips down Neil’s ear, “I told you someone on this bus was going to die.”

Neil didn’t open his eyes as he lifted a hand and splayed his fingers across Andrew’s hot neck, “Not until after the game. Or Kevin will kill you.”


End file.
